Search smh:

Search in:

Libya offers truce as ICC readies warrants

Imed Lamloum

Muammar Gaddafi's regime has offered a truce in return for an immediate NATO ceasefire as the International Criminal Court (ICC) considers arrest warrants for human-rights abuses in Libya.

Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi proposed the truce on Sunday to the visiting United Nations special envoy, Abdul-Ilah al-Khatib, as an anti-regime revolt entered a fourth month.

Mahmudi, quoted by JANA state news agency, said after meeting Khatib that Libya wants "an immediate ceasefire to coincide with a stop to the NATO bombardment and the acceptance of international observers".

Libya was committed to the unity of its territory and people and that Libyans had the right to "decide on their internal affairs and political system through democratic dialogue away from the bombing threat", he said.

Advertisement

Mahmudi accused NATO, which is enforcing a UN-mandated no-fly zone over Libya, of "abuses and violations" including "political assassinations, the unjust maritime siege, bombing of civilian sites and destruction of infrastructure".

During the meeting, Khatib pressed the need for a ceasefire and access to stricken Libyan cities, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said in New York.

Regime officials told the UN envoy they were "open and ready to fully engage", Nesirky said. No mention was made however of the Libyan offer of a ceasefire.

Khatib also met with Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelati Laabidi and tribal leaders who support the regime, but he was unable to get a meeting with Gaddafi, who has had two rounds of UN sanctions imposed since his crackdown on opposition protests started in mid-February.

Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the days of Gaddafi's regime were "numbered" and that some within the Libyan government were looking for a way for their leader to go into exile.

Ban spoke by telephone with Mahmudi on Sunday, but no details were given of their discussions. The UN leader has made repeated calls for a ceasefire, including in a stormy telephone discussion with Gaddafi.

Meanwhile, the ICC's chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said on Sunday he was "almost ready" for a Libyan rights abuse trial as he prepared to apply for arrest warrants.

Moreno-Ocampo is expected to ask ICC judges at The Hague to issue three arrest warrants on Monday, when the names of the accused could be revealed.

Diplomats have said Gaddafi would likely head the list.

Protests against Gaddafi's 41-year autocratic rule began on February 15 and quickly escalated into a popular uprising, inspired by revolts in Tunisia and Egypt that toppled their respective hardline rulers.

Gaddafi ordered his forces to crush the uprising, prompting a rebellion that has claimed thousands of lives while seeing much of eastern Libya fall into the hands of insurgents who have vowed to march on Tripoli and topple the dictator.

On March 19, French, US and British forces, under a UN mandate to protect civilians, launched air strikes on Gaddafi's forces in a campaign that was taken over by NATO on March 31.